Previous research has claimed that that average personality differences between men and women are small.

But the new analysis published in the Public Library of Science One journal revealed that each sex shares a distinct set of characteristics, with just 18 per cent of men having a typically "female" set of traits or vice versa.

Past studies have shown that men and women average similar scores on the 16PF5 – a well-known and frequently used measure of personality.

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But by estimating the average difference in men's and women's scores on each of the test's 15 different measures of personality, and comparing them against one another, researchers found that in fact the sexes shared less ground than previously thought.

The study showed that because men scored higher in some areas and women in others the differences between the sexes cancelled each other out when viewed as a simple average, but made for a significant gulf when added together.

The new paper "clearly rejects the idea that there are only minor differences between the personalities of men and women," researchers said.

The study could explain why certain professions, such as engineering, are dominated by a particular sex in spite of efforts by governments to promote equality, Dr Paul Irwing, of Manchester Business School, who co-authored the paper, said.

He added: "You find far fewer women in engineering and it is normally contended that you cannot explain this in individual differences, but that is on the assumption they are small and our study shows they are huge.

"People are self-selecting into careers that fit their personality characteristics – it is the complete opposite of what people have assumed for the past 100 years."

Dr Marco Del Giudice, who led the study, said: "Sex differences in personality are believed to be comparatively small. However, research in this area has suffered from significant methodological limitations.

"The idea that there are only minor differences between the personality profiles of males and females should be rejected as based on inadequate methodology."

Prof Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin – Madison, who proposed the theory that men and women have largely similar characteristics, said the method used by the researchers led to "uninterpretable" results.

She said: "The scientific evidence still shows that, contrary to stereotypes, men and women are quite similar on a wide array of psychological qualities."